Pre-Raphaelite Flyer 2016

Pr
e-Raphaelite Study W
eekend
Pre-Raphaelite
Weekend
4th - 6th March 2016
Based at Chester’s historic Queen Hotel
(DBB), just 50 yards from Chester Railway
Station and an easy walk to City Centre,
Chester Cathedral, Rows and Walls and
shopping.
Includes: Gorgeous Illustrated Lectures/
Presentations by Adrian Sumner on the
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, their Influence
and Legacy.
Plus Trips by luxury coach to Walker Art
Gallery, Sudley Art Gallery and All
Saints Allerton in Liverpool, the Lady
Lever Art Gallery Port Sunlight, the
world’s finest collection of Della Robbia
Pottery at the Williamson Art Gallery
Birkenhead, Gladstone’s Library and
Edward Burne-Jones last stained glass window at the adjacent Church of
St Deiniol, Hawarden.
Venue tours and talks and guided tours of collections by local experts.
All Admission Fees, Study Pack
and Tour Guide or Courier on hand throughout
From £259 per person. Some single rooms available.
For full itinerary, details and booking contact Amy Sumner on
[email protected] or Adrian Sumner on 01606 782516 or
[email protected]
*(Ask also for details of Charles Rennie Mackintosh Study Weekend in Glasgow)*
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood burst on to the art scene at the 1849 Royal Academy
Show. Declaring themselves to be a genuine and heartfelt antidote to the false and sentimental art which was then the fashion, John Everett Millais, William Holman Hunt and
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, with friends, family and followers, set about revolutionising English
Art. This they did with a combination of boyish high spirits; an enthusiasm for nature
inspired by the critic John Ruskin; a love of poetry and native literature led by Rossetti;
and outrageously brilliant technique learnt from Early Netherlandish Masters such as Jan
Van Eyck. In six years they achieved virtually all their aims, and had set the stage for the
next generation of geniuses - mostly taught by Rossetti which included William Morris and
Sir Edward Burne-Jones. These formed stepping stones to the Arts and Craft Movement;
the Aesthetic Movement of Wilde and Beardsley; the High Victorian Art of Lord Leighton
and G F Watts; and countless continental artists of the Decadent and Symbolist Movements; and International Art Nouveau.
The Study Weekend looks at their work in three definitive collections, in three widelydiffering but equally important and impressive galleries: The Walker Art Gallery, at the
heart of Liverpool's neo-classical Museums and Galleries complex, containing major works
by Burne-Jones, Millais, Lord Leighton and Holman Hunt; Sudley Art Gallery, Mossley
Hill, contains significant works by Holman Hunt, Lord Leighton and John Melhuish
Strudwick, as well as Turners and Gainsboroughs; The Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port
Sunlight, at the centre of Lord Leverhulme's model village serving his Port Sunlight works
(Lever Bros) is, simultaneously, one of the most beautiful galleries to be found anywhere
and one of those richest in Pre-Raphaelite works. Amongst its treasures are ‘The Blessed
Damozel’ (Rossetti), ‘Sir Isumbras at the Ford’ (Millais), ‘The Scapegoat’ and ‘May
Morning on Magdelene College Tower’ (Holman Hunt), ‘The Garden of the Hesperides’
(Lord Leighton), 'The Beguiling of Merlin', 'The Tree of Forgiveness', and 'The Annunciation' by Edward Coley Burne-Jones and the work of many Pre-Raphaelite followers, most
notably Lawrence Alma-Tadema. The gallery also contains significant holdings of Wedgwood, Greek black- and red- figure pottery, tapestries, sculpture, furniture and 18th century paintings.
Liverpool was key to the early development of the PRB, as masterpieces such as Holman
Hunt's 'Valentine rescuing Sylvia from Proteus' enjoyed great success at the Liverpool
Academy, and Liverpool patrons were early collectors of PRB painting. In addition,
Birkenhead was the location of Harold Rathbone’s ‘Della Robbia Pottery’, one of the most
important of Arts and Crafts producers, where the Williamson Art Gallery today holds the
world’s most comprehensive collections of its work.
The tour leader and organiser is Adrian Sumner, art historian and painter; who will provide two
introductory lectures, richly illustrated with colour slides, on the Brotherhood and their followers
and influence. He will also lead the gallery tours, looking in depth at selected works.